what do monastics do?

Folks ask what do monastics do?  We pray.  We pray long and hard.  We pray for our salvation and your salvation and the salvation of the world. 

Role of Monasticism in the Byzantine and Ottoman States

the spirituality of Hesychasm, as enunciated in the theology of St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), is of paramount importance not only in the life of monasticism, but also in the life of the entire Church.
Role of Monasticism in the Byzantine and Ottoman States  

What shoukld the priest wear?

If constant wearing of "black attire" is expected of the first rank of the priesthood, the reader, then all the more does it refer to those who are fully in the rank of the priesthood.
 What should the priest wear?

Faith and Tradition of the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Faith and Tradition of the Syriac Orthodox Church. 

What we believe. What the Fathers and Mothers of the Church handed down to us, protecting it some times with their very lives, unchanged until today. St. Mary’ is a monastic community and Orthodox Christian intentional community that tries to live, pray and work with each other. We are part of the worldwide Syriac Orthodox Church. This is the Ancient Church taught and started by Christ.

The basic work of St. Mary’s is hospitality

The basic work of St. Mary’s is hospitality

Our goal is to implement the teachings of the Gospels, Personalism, the focus on the human person made in the image and likeness of God, is primary, the implementation of Matthew 25, “What you did for the least of the brethren you did for me.” Each person is to be received as Christ. As St. Benedict had taught many centuries ago, the guest is Christ.

Are we We like to think of ourselves as gracious and loving

We like to think of ourselves as gracious and loving, but, the truth be told, that is predicated on an overly-naïve and overly-romanticized notion of love. We don't really love as Jesus invites us to when he says: Love each other as I have loved you! The tail-end of that sentence contains the challenge: Jesus doesn't say, love each other according to the spontaneous movements of your heart; nor, love each other as society defines love, but rather: Love each other as I have loved you! And, for the most part, we haven't done that:

Are you ready to join the dreamers and live the example given us by Christ?

Here at St Mary’s, you don’t call them ‘the poor’ – you know their names, their faces. They are not a social problem or category. You’ve seen their faces. It’s the face-to-face encounter that you create a space for here that transforms all of us.

Are you ready to join the dreamers and live the example given us by Christ?